Multi-user searchable encryption system and method with index validation and tracing

Abstract

A multi-user searchable encryption system includes a key generation center to issue a private secret key to a user and trace information regarding a user who has generated an index, and a user terminal device to generate an index for searching for a database using the private secret key. The multi-user searchable encryption system includes a database (DB) server that verifies the index generated by the user terminal device and searches for corresponding data to the verified index.

Description

RELATED APPLICATION(S)[0001]This application claims the benefit of Korean Patent Application No. 10-2011-0132068, filed on Dec. 9, 2011, which is hereby incorporated by reference as if fully set forth herein.FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0002]The present invention relates to a multi-user searchable encryption technique, and more particularly, to a searchable encryption method and system which are capable of verifying an index generated by each user and tracing a user who has generated an index in a database used by multiple users.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0003]Recently, as the information society has been advanced, the amount of data processed by individuals, business, and the like has been increased, and thus, costs required for efficiently managing such data have also been considerably increased. However, it is not in reason to impose costs required for such information management on every member of the information society, and thus, cases of storing information by utilizing an externa...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The present invention provides a multi-user searchable encryption method and system that can verify indices generated by different users and trace users who have generated indices in a database used by multiple users. This helps to ensure the security and integrity of the database. The system includes a key generation center that issues private secret keys to users and tracks users who have generated indices, a user terminal device that generates indexes for searching the database, and a database server that verifies the indexes and searches the database using the indexes and trap doors generated by the user terminal device. This approach ensures that users can only access data that they have permission to search, and reduces the risk of unauthorized access to sensitive data.

Problems solved by technology

Recently, as the information society has been advanced, the amount of data processed by individuals, business, and the like has been increased, and thus, costs required for efficiently managing such data have also been considerably increased.

However, it is not in reason to impose costs required for such information management on every member of the information society, and thus, cases of storing information by utilizing an external database service has been gradually increased.

However, the utilization of an external database has an arising problem that an external database is not reliable as can be seen from a case of a data spill or the like which is frequently generated recently, so a proposal of a solution thereto has emerged as a very critical issue.

That is, it means that, although an external attacker or a database manager obtains stored encrypted data, it cannot obtain actually meaningful information.

The biggest issue in the cloud computing is to guarantee confidentiality of data concentrated on the cloud server, which essentially requires an application of a searchable encryption system.

However, it is difficult to effectively protect data utilized in a multi-user computing environment represented by cloud computing only with the existing symmetric key or public key-based searchable encryption systems.

When multiple users share data through a database, the most critical issue is to authenticate data stored in the database.

However, the multi-user searchable encryption system developed to date does not take such a data verification and tracing function into consideration.

Images